haskell



2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

J R HASKELL Wad for Ordnance.

Patented- Ma y 24, 18 81.

JAMES 1i. HASKELL, OF PASS'AIQJNEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO ARTHUR B.

JOHNSON, TRUSTEE, OF UTICA, NEW YORK.

WAD FOR' ORDNANCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 241,979, dated May 24;,1881.

' Application filed'0ctoher28,1880; (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

1 Be it known that I, JAMES R. HASKELL, of

Passaic, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have inventeda new and use- 5 fed Wad or Gas-Check to be used in Combination withMulticharge or Accelerating Guns; and I do hereby declare the followingto be a description thereof in such full, clear, exact, and conciseterms as'to enable any one skilled in the arts to which itappertains orwith which it is most nearly connected to make and use the same,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, and to the figures and letters of I reference markedthereon. a

This invention appertains more especially to the multicharge oraccelerating gunehaving supplemental-charge chambers, and is intended torender that variety of gun thoroughly effect- 20711311 in practice. Thisgun, although a weapon of very great. power when provided with aneffectual gas-check wad, is of no practical value without it. The,gun,-to be available in actual practice, must be supplied, inloading'it, with a gascheck wad that will effectually ex tin guishwindage-that is, prevent the gas from passing it and firing thesupplemental charge ahead of the shot, and one that will resistthedestructive power of the burning powj der during its passage through thebore of the gun over the throats-of the pockets-or snpple mentalcharge-chambers. The throats of these pockets in a ten-inch gun, forexample, will be about six inches in'diameter, and the powder in them isfired the instant the wad begins to uncover it, so that the wad issubjectedto the fire of the powder from thetime it begins to uncoverthepocket until it has passed entirely clear of it. Unless, therefore,the gas-check wad-be made to resist the destructive effects .of theburning powderas it uioves forward, it will be disabled before it passesthe'second pocket snfficiently to let the gas pass'it and fire thepowder ahead of the shot. The value check wad possessing at least theessential qualities pointed out. F p

' The object of'my invention is to provide a gas-check wad for theseguns possessing the of the gunis thus made to depend upon a-gascheck wadcomposed of'layers of leather cut to the exact size and shape of thebore of the 'gun, to.l it exactlythe grooves and bands of 'tit'e,rifling. This wad is built up of successive layers of leather to alength of about twice the diameter of the throats of the pockets, theseveral thicknesses of leather being tacked together, as'in laying upthe heel of a boot, or held together by a bolt. In laying up the wadfourth thickness of leather a disk composed of sheet-copper having aflange equal in depth to the thickness of the leather embraced by it, sothat the flanges of these disks cover the entire external surface of thewad, so far as '65 "tbeyare-intecposed'in building it up, and theymay,of course, be continued through the entire length of the wad; but itisnot necessary to continue them beyond two-thirds of its length: Theflanges of these metal disks are swaged up to the exact size and form ofthe bore of the gun and its rifling, and the bottom disk .is filled withsoft metal to embrace the front end of thecartridge. V-The arrangementand construction arefu'lly shown by the draw- 7 5 ings, in whichf v p Ia f Figural is a longitudinal vertical section through the rear part ofa multicharge-gun, showing the gun without the breech cap or pin andonly one of the supplemental-charge 8o chambers, only so much of the gunbeing shown as isnecessary to show the relation ,of the gas-check wad tothe cartridge and the supplemental-charge chambers. Fig. 2 is a Thiswad, as a whole, isshown in the drawin gs by A, the several thicknessesof thelea'the by b b, and the metal disksby c c.

By this construction and compositionof the wad its exterior surface isprotected byan armor of metal composed of the flanges of the severaldisks, which flanges, bythe slight'oompressibility of the leather orother material, are driven together andinto each other by the "force ofthe powder andexpanded tightly into the bore of the gun, thus'sa'vin gthe wad from. burning and extinguishing all wiudage, and preventing theflame from cutting by the.

features aforesaid; and it consists of a gas- 50 there is interposedbetween every third or 60,

transverse section through the gun and wad. 8 5 I wad as it passes thethroats of the successive pockets to fire the powder ahead of the shot,or when covered by the wad or shot.

To make this gas-check wad thoroughly effectual, the bore of the gun,from the breech to the front end of the wad, should be made a littlelarger-say one-eighth of an inch--than the remaining part of the boreforward, to insure absolute contact of the flanges of the wad with thesurface of the bore. Upon the front end of the wad there is combined alayer of lubricating compound, 1, between it and the shot, to facilitatethe passage of the wad and to'save' the surface of the bore from undueabrasion.

In making these wads it is better to leave about one-third their lengthuncovered by the flanges of the copper disks, an d to cut the upperleather lamina a little larger than the bore of the gun and the copperflanges of the disks,

- not only to extinguish the windage absolutely, but that they may alsothoroughly clean the bore of the gun.

By Figs. 3 and at of the drawings is shown a longitudinal and a verticalsection of a gascheck wad embracing the essential principles of the onealready described-via, an armor of soft metal covering the rear part ofa wad composed of leather or other fibrous material slightlycompressible, and grooved to take the riding or form'of'the bore underthe operation of the impelling force. This wad consists of a-cup, B,made of soft brass, in length about equal to two-thirds the length ofthe entire wad, said cup to be filled with laminated leather crowdedtightly into it, and in case the Wad is longer than the cup, as I preferto make it, the leather is laid up above and over the top or forward endof, the cup, as shown by Fig. 5 of the drawings. In the external surfaceofthe cup a series of concentric grooves are cut and filled with alubricating compound. The surface of the cup is thus made to consist ofa series of alternate grooves and ribs, the

ribs taking the riding of the gun in this in stance, instead of theflanges, as in the other wad, and the grooves d'stributing the lubricantover the surface of th wad. The rear end of the cup may be made plain;but I prefer to make it of the form of an inverted cup, to embrace theforward end of the cartridge, as

shown by Fig. l of the drawings. This form of the wad is intended moreespecially for large guns, and the walls of the cup should be thickenough to sustain the pressure of theimpellin g force. The metal cupmay, of course, be made the entire length of the wad, or, in otherwords, the wad may consist of a metal cup filled with leather or somegood substitute for leather, and having its external surface grooved andribbed to reduce as much as possible the resistance of the wad in takingthe rifling of the bore., The, grooves in the surface of the wad should.be inade a little deeper than the rifling of thegumand ther'ibs shouldbe made quite narrow, to offer as little resistance as-possible the wadis made hollow, orin the form ot'a cup,

to lighten it, and more than half of its surface should be cut away inmaking the grooves between the ribs, theribsbeing made narrowerthan thegrooves to reduce the resistance to its minimum.

By Fig. 5 of the drawings is shown a modified form of the wad. In thiscase the leather is laid up above the cup and the forward end of the wadmounted with a metal head, B, the whole being held together by a centralbolt passing through the wad, soarranged that when the wad is compressedby the powder the cup and the head of the wad can slip toward.

each other on the bolt or central pin that supports or holds the wholetogether.

By Fig. 6 of the drawings. is shown a modified form of the wad,embracing the same principle, substantially, as those above described;but in this case the soft-metal cup B is placed in front of the leatherwad and embraces the rear end of the shot, fulfilling the doublefunction of extinguishing the windage and rotating the shot. The cup inthis case is grooved in its outside surface, the same as in Fig. 3, andfor the same purpose, the rear part of the wad being made of laminatedlcatherand embraced by soft-metal disks, as in Fig. l. The gascheck wadin this case is combined with the shot and makes a part of it; but itfills the same office precisely and has the same substance as agas-check wad filled and possessed by the other two-via, a longgas-check wad that efi'ectually extinguishes windage, covered with anarmor of metal to save it from destruction in passing the severalpockets, and long enough to lap at once well over both sides of themouthof the pockets, to prevent the flame from cutting around it and firingthe supplemental charges before the wad has passed them. This style ofwad is more especially adapted to the form of riding. shown in Fig. 7Ofnthfi drawings, as the form of wads shown byFigs. 1 and 3 is bestadapted to the form of riding 1 illustrated by Fig. 2 of the drawings.It is quite common to put a band of sof metal around the rear end of theshot and creaseit to make it take the rifling of the gun or to carry alubricant; but to make the rear f end of the shot a gas-check wad longenough to completely close the mouths of the pockets,

and having its surface grooved and ribbed for the purpose of reducingits resistance in taking the-riding of the gun, is novel in combination'with this variety of gun, to which the invention is limited.

- It will-be observed that the principal feature an were i 3% of theinvention is an indestructible wad that will efi'ectually extinguishwindage, and of such proportion with reference to the throats of thesupplemental-charge chambers as to prevent the flame from cuttingareundit, as above described.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure'byLetters Patent 1 A gasoheek wad for multichargeguns, consisting oflayers of leather or any good substitute for leather, the front partgrooved longitudinally to correspond with the riding of the gun, and therear part protected by an armor of metal flanged or groovedcircumferentially to take the rifling of the gun under the operation ofthe impelling force, as described.

2. A gas-check wad consisting of a series of soft-metal disks or cupsinterlaid with leather or any good substitute for leather, the leatherand disks or cups to be tacked or bolted together to make the wad of thenecessary length andnnit-y, as described.

3. Ages-check wad consistingof asoft-metal cup filled or mounted withleather or its'equivalent, and having its flange or periphery groovedand ribbed, the cup and leather to be held together by a bolt and metalhead, substantially as described.

Dated October 19, 1880.

JAMES R. HASKELL.

Witnesses Amos BROADNAX, WM. H. BROADNAX.

